Right... I have some music on my (Windows Vista) PC. I had some before I had iTunes, some downloaded, some copied from CD. I've never bought from iTunes. I've imported stuff since iTunes, some using iTunes and some using Windows Media. I have no idea where or in what format the files themselves reside. I also have music on a Nokia phone and Nokia Music Manager (or whatever it's called). iTunes and Nokia Music seem to see slightly different music i.e. 80% of it's the same but some stuff can only be seen through one or the other.
So.... how do I sort out this mess?
Is there anything I can use that will link with both my iPod and my phone?
Would it help to track down the source files and keep them all in one place?
If I remove iTunes will I lose (and have to reload) all the music I loaded using it? (format issue)
At some point in the near future I'm going to replace this PC - can I do anything now to make that easier from a music point of view?
If I loaded all my CDs I'd almost certainly have more than my HD could take but I do have a massive external drive - can I hold music externally? Obviously I'd have to have the drive connected when syncing iPod or phone.
Finally... please keep any answers [b][u]really[/u][/b] simple to the point of being patronising. I really should understand this kind of thing but for some reason seem to find it harder than it needs to be.
TIA,
Higs
Start using Spotify and delete the mess 🙂
The problem is basically incompatible file formats. All the iTunes music sits in a library folder that can easily be copied onto a big external drive, which is what I did with mine. Then, all you do is get iTunes to look for the library in it's new location, which is alt+click on the Itunes icon. That's on the Mac, btw, but a quick search on help will give you the PC equivalent. Your WMA files won't work in iTunes, however you should be able to convert them to MP3, then you can drag them into iTunes. The Nokia music files are stuck on the phone, AFAIK. When the Nokia Music store was set up I believe it was restricted to the phone and could not be downloaded to any computer. That may have changed, but I don't think so. Thing is, any files in iTunes can be dragged onto the Nokia and will play happily.
If you buy a new computer, then all you do is install iTunes then go through the find library procedure again.
Start using Spotify and delete the mess
I use Spotify at home but need to get music onto my iPod Shuffle (for the gym) and phone (for when I'm out and about).
I've got Spotify on my mobile and it's great ... it allows you to store music on the phone so you don't need to have reception or wifi access to listen.
The downside is it requires a premium account at £10 a month. I signed up to see what it was like and have used it so much I can't see me stopping.
Obviously this still isn't going to work for your iPod shuffle though 🙁 Spotify should produce a tiny shuffle player
Simple question....
how can I make sure that when I rip a CD it does it in the most accessible format? At the moment iTunes launches automatically meaning the the Nokia software doesn't see it.
Hmmmm.... things no better.
I seem to have two different 'Nokia Music' programs. One tries to sync all music on my PC every time I connect my phone (which I don't want) and the other only loaded the first 30seconds of each track last time I used it. I've looked and looked but there's no setting to only load 30sec (or full - why would there be?
So I downloaded MediaMonkey which was OK but when I used it to load stuff up to my phone the files all go across but they're not visible in the phone's music player.
Pretty much the same issues I had. I had a nokia phone " thing" and a nano music "thing". Bit the bullet and got an iPhone. Put everything onto tunes. The stuff that tunes couldn't or wouldn't see I either deleted ( if it was a shite so g anyway and never listened to) or I downloaded from iTunes.
Start using Spotify and delete the mess
Spotify should start getting more artists on its 'label' - at least 50% of the things I search for don't exist, except for in "bobs rendition of..." form.
Plus for phone that means you need an unlimited data plan, which is farcically expensive.
Pretty much the same issues I had. I had a nokia phone " thing" and a nano music "thing". Bit the bullet and got an iPhone.
I'm trying not to go down that route.
I'm not anti-Apple - I've got an iPod and (if I had the cash) would have a Mac - but I just don't like the iPhone.